Chapter 11 - First PK, First Enemy

“See you later, Metehan. Don’t forget, you can always come to visit us.” Lorenzo, Richard and other Guards who he has been training with had seen him off with smiles on their faces.

“Sure, I will. See you guys.” Metehan answered with a smile on his as well. Today his training was over in the City Training Camp. He had learnt many skills and polished them along with the skills he already had. He was quite satisfied with his reward. Actually it was the best reward he could ever get. If he had got an item, he had to discard it eventually. However skills would be useful as long as he plays the game and he was planning to play it for a quite while.

He left the City Training Camp inside the Castle of the Lord and headed the main street. There were even more people than before in the main street now. Many players were looking for a party, selling and buying stuffs. It was quite different from his first days. Some of the buildings were repaired in the city as well. City had a better mood now.

‘I guess they were repaired by the players via some kind of quests.’

Metehan headed the south gate. He was planning to hunt and test his new skills. He was quite excited to see the results of his training on the monsters. Then he heard a familiar voice calling him.

“Metehan, hello!” That was Sithred. He was standing in front of his shop and calling him. Metehan turned to him and started to walk towards him.

“Hi, Sithred, how have you been?” Metehan said with a polite voice.

“Fine, thank you. You have gotten quite strong in a month. I guess you can handle my request now.” Sithred said with a smile on his face. That was a quest! Metehan had a quest right from the start. A smile appeared on Metehan’s face as well.

“Sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, Tailor Martha had requested Bear Skins from me. And I am short for 1000 of them. I need you to bring me 1000 Bear Skins by hunting Savage Bears. They live in the depth of the woods. There were many aggressive monsters in the depth of the woods. So I can’t ask anyone. However it seems you are strong enough to handle it. Of course I will give you a very nice reward. Could you please accept my request?” Sithred spoke with a gentle and soft voice. And a window popped up in front of Metehan.

[Quest : The Skins of the Savage Bears]

Merchant Sithred took an order from Tailor Martha. However he is short for 1000 Bear Skins. He wants you to hunt the Savage Bears for their skins and bring 1000 Bear Skins.

Restrictions : You must be strong enough to hunt Savage Bears and bring 1000 Bears Skin in order to complete the quest.

Difficulty : F

Do you accept the quest?

“Sure. I will bring you the Bear Skins.”

+You have accepted the quest.

“Thank you. I will be waiting for your return.”

“See you soon then.” Metehan said with a smile on his face.

“See you, Metehan.” Sithred talked back with a smile on his face as well.

Metehan left the city and went into the woods. He passed by the parties grinding on the Wild Rabbits. Wild Rabbits were quite weak for Metehan now. They wouldn’t even make a good test subjects for his new skills. So he just skipped them and moved into the depth of the woods. After he walked for about 10 minutes, he encountered with Rabid Dogs. They were moving in packs of three. Metehan didn’t know what level they were however they were definitely stronger than Wild Rabbits. Moreover their numbers were less than them which made them more easy to hunt. He was able to dodge attacks of 3 Wild Rabbits so he might hunt the Rabid Dogs without taking any damage. However he first wanted to find out their defence and HP levels and how much damage he would inflict them. He approached them slowly until they felt his presence. Rabid Dogs were aggressive monsters unlike Wild Rabbits. So they started to run towards him as soon as they felt his presence. Metehan quickly activated his Terror Skill. It was now at Intermediate Level 5 and it could paralyze enemies within 15 meters radius for 10 seconds. Since Rabid Dogs were in his range, they were paralyzed.

+Battle Phase is active.

Since Battle Phase was active now he could see their levels. They were level 5 monsters. Metehan drew his swords and slashed one of the Rabid Dogs.

+Sharp Blade was activated. %64 of the enemy defence was ignored.

The Rabid Dog was dead with a single hit. Metehan attacked the second Rabid Dog without a delay. However this time, his Sharp Blade Skill wasn’t activated and it wasn’t dead with a single hit. Its HP had dropped to 30%.

Sharp Blade was a skill at Intermediate Level 3 and it was ignoring 64% of the enemy defence within 17% probability. So since it wasn’t activated during his second attack, he couldn’t kill the second Rabid Dog with a single attack. Metehan continued to attack the second one and it was dead with one more hit. There was still more than 5 seconds until paralyzing effect was dissolved. And Metehan wanted to use his new skill. His blades started to glow with a blue light.

“Slash Rain!” Metehan shouted and he landed four consecutive quick slashes in less than a second. Rabid Dog was dead. He could kill three level 5 monsters in about 5 seconds. He was quite satisfied with the result. Now he wanted to hunt them without paralyzing effect. So he moved to the next spot. In a minute he encountered another Rabid Dog pack. The pack started to run towards him as soon as they felt his presence. Metehan already took a battle stance and he started to run towards them as well. He wanted to make the first attack. He activated his Slash Rain skill on one of the Rabid Dog and it was dead instantly without a chance to attack.

The attack pattern of the Rabid Dog was simple. They were biting, retreating for a few seconds and doing it again. However they weren’t attacking blindly head on. One of them was attacking from front and other two were attacking from left and right side. Basically they were trying to surrounding their enemies.

Metehan had attacked the one in front of him with an attack skill. However there was a drawback for using attack skills. He had figured it out during his training camp. When he activated an attack skill, he wasn’t able to dodge or change his attack course until his skill was resolved. That’s why he couldn’t dodge the attacks of the other Rabid Dogs. So they had bitten him from his right and left shoulders. Fortunately their attack powers were quite low. Each of them had inflicted only 10 damage. Metehan’s maximum HP was 340 now. So his HP had only dropped by 5%.

After he killed one of the Rabid Dogs, he immediately attack the Rabid Dog on his right with a normal attack while dodging the attack of the other Rabid Dog. Since he wasn’t using any active skill, he could dodge his attack with the help of his passive skill, Footwork.

Footwork was a skill that was allowing him to move %48 faster during a battle. He had created this skill during the training camp and he had grinded it to Intermediate Level 9. It was partly thanks to his martial arts.

His passive skill, Sharp Blade was activated when he attack the Rabid Dog on his right side which resulted with an instant death for it. He immediately turned back and activated his Slash Rain Skill again and killed the last Rabid Dog with one hit. He had only lost 5% HP against three level 5 monsters. And if he hadn’t used his Slash Rain Skill, he might have killed them without losing any HP.

Metehan was quite amazed. His skills were making a quite difference during the battle. He was struggling to hunt Wild Rabbits when he was level 3 however now when he was level 5, he was able to hunt 3 level 5 monsters easily. Well, his skill boost wasn’t the only reason why he could hunt so easily. He was also wearing proper equipments that provide quite amount of defence. On the top of that, Metehan had gained quite amount of bonus stats during his training camp. He had even created a new stat, Endurance. It was a stat that provides extra defence against non-magical attacks. With all of his total stat bonuses including title bonuses, he was equal to a normal level 15 player. That’s why Sithred had recognised his strength and requested him to hunt Savage Bears. NPCs didn’t know the level concept however they were able to measure overall powers of the players by the aura they emit.

Metehan kept on going into the depth of the woods while hunting Rabid Dogs, level 8 Dark Wolves and level 12 Dire Wolves. When he didn’t use any attack skills, he could slowly hunt them without losing any HP. Dark Wolves and Dire Wolves were also spawning in packs of three. And he could hunt the pack of Dark Wolves in about 20 seconds, and the pack of Dire Wolves in a minute. If he had used attack skills, he could kill them less 10 seconds however Dark Wolves were inflicting about 30 damage with an attack and Dire Wolves were inflicting about 70 damage with an attack. Since they were surrounding him during the battle, when he used an attack skill on one of them, he was taking damage from other two. On the top of that, they were causing an abnormal status, Bleed. He was losing 10 HP every 10 seconds for 2 minutes. And Bleed also was preventing him from recovering HP when he sat down. It was a quiet pain in the ass. So when you calculate the time for his HP recovery, it was faster to hunt them without using any attack skills.

Well, even though it was taking quite time, the experience he gets from Dire Wolves was quite good. He had reached the spot where Savage Bears was spawning in less than an hour and his experience bar had already exceeded 70%. It was at 11% when he left the city. His grinding speed was amazingly fast considering his previous grindings. He had to grind for about 13-14 hours to reach to level 3 from level 2. He was hunting monsters that were 7 levels higher than him after all.

Metehan saw a group when he reached the first Savage Bear spot. Two of them were hunting and one of them was preparing to hit a weak girl. Well, at least he assumed that she was a girl from her scarlet long hairs. She looked more like a monster. However he was not the type of guy who would judge people with their appearances.

‘There are bullies everywhere. Why do they have to beat up the weak just because they are stronger than them? The strong should protect the weak, not bully them. I don’t understand that at all.’

The one who was preparing to hit was a man with golden hairs. Metehan started to approach them and shouted.

“Hey, what are you doing there?!”

“Who the hell are you?” The man with golden hairs turned to him and asked with an arrogant attitude. That had pissed him off a little.

“I should ask this question. Who the hell are you bullying a weak girl? Do you even call yourself a man?” Metehan answered with an angry tone.

“Hmp. Another peasant appeared. Get lost. Otherwise you will have the same fate.” The man with golden hairs said with a little irritated tone. That had pissed off Metehan even more.

“I’d like you to try that.” Metehan said with an intimidated tone.

“What did you say?! Do you know who I am?!” The man with golden hairs shouted with an angry voice.

‘Like I care who you are.’ Metehan thought and didn’t answer.

“Very well. If you want to suffer so much, it can’t be helped. However I won’t forgive you even if you beg me later.” The man with golden hairs was calm now and he had started to approach him with a confident look.

“You stupid peasant, you will regret big time for this. You don’t seem to know who I am. So I will tell you. My name is The Prince. I am the top player in the weekly rankings so far. But don’t worry. I will not kill you immediately. I will beat you up until you beg me to kill you. Then I will kill you.” The man with golden hairs continued with an arrogant attitude.

‘Phew. What an arrogant guy. Stop bragging about yourself and come at me already. I have a quest to finish. I can’t wait for you forever.’ Metehan was quite confident about his skills since he had been testing them for an hour. In his real life when he learnt how to protect himself, nobody had dared to bully him so he couldn’t find any chance to test his new strength. That was one of the main reasons why his self confident was still weak. He hadn’t had any chance to increase it.

The Prince had sheathed his sword and started to attack him with his punches. However surprisingly he couldn’t connect any of them. Metehan was dodging his punches quite easily. He had a malicious smile on his face while doing it. He was enjoying it. His self confidence had increased even more.

Meanwhile The Prince and his friends also had shocked expressions. They seemed like they couldn’t make sense of it. The Prince had drawn his sword and started to attack him with his sword. However Metehan was dodging his attacks by stepping to right and left with a perfect timing. Each of the sword attacks were missing him by hair’s breadth. After an about 30 seconds struggle of The Prince, The Prince had stopped with a shocked and frustrated face.

“What the hell are you?! How can you dodge all of my attacks?!” The Prince shouted with a wavering voice.

“I am just someone who hates the bullies.” The boy answered with a smirk on his face. He was making fun of The Prince. Then suddenly another man around middle forties with golden hairs approached them and spoke.

“He is probably a martial artist who is playing in Realistic Mode. That’s why he can dodge your attacks.” Everybody including Metehan had turned to him.

‘How did he know that?’ Metehan was a little surprised.

“Realistic Mode? What about it? Isn’t it just a mode made for the mazosists who love pain? What does it have to do with him dodging my attacks?!” The Prince answered with a distrusting expression.

“Well, since you didn’t play in Realistic Mode, you wouldn’t know. It is a mode that allows you to experience game with utmost realism. Unlike Ideal Mode, you can control your avatar no different from reality in Realistic Mode. The game mechanics are quite different. You can use your personal abilities in the game. It is much more fun than Ideal Mode.” The old man with golden hairs answered with an excited attitude.

“I see. Are you playing in Realistic Mode as well? You talked as if you knew it.” The Prince asked with an calm and arrogant attitude. Since he made sense of it, he had calmed down.

“Nope. Not anymore. I had started to play in Realistic Mode. However when I died at my first day, my avatar has been deleted and I was banned for 72 hours. After my ban was over, I started to play in Ideal Mode to test my theory. Since I was quite shocked when my avatar was deleted and I was banned for 72 days and couldn’t find any information about it on the net, I tested whether it was because of the play mode or not. Realistic Mode is much more fun to play but losing your avatar for good when you are dead is just too unfair.” The old man with golden hairs answered with sad expression.

‘What the hell?! His avatar was deleted when he died? So my avatar will be deleted as well if I were to die? No way! That must be a lie! A lie!’ Metehan had freaked out when he heard about his avatar being deleted if he were to die. He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to accept it. All of his efforts, all of his skills, all of his bonuses would be gone? There was no way he would accept such an absurdity. So he was in denial.

“Good to know that. So if I kill this peasant now, he will lose his avatar, huh? That’s good.” The Prince had started to run towards the boy. His sword was glowing with a light blue light.

“Piercing Strike!” The Prince shouted and his sword moved in a horizontal line. Metehan was still in freaked out state. So he couldn’t react in time and the sword landed on his right shoulder.

+Battle Phase is active.

+Self Defence Mode is active.

Metehan cried in pain and stepped back quickly and retreated 5 meters back in a second. It was so painful that he had felt like his shoulder was torn apart. On the top of that, his HP had dropped to 30% for a second. Fortunately his Guidance II Skill was activated and his HP was fully recovered immediately.

‘It is not the time to think about this. I need to survive this battle first. His attack power is too high. I can’t let him hit me again. I have to finish this as soon as possible. I need to use Deadly Double Slash Skill. It consumes 180 MP. I can’t use it normally because my maximum MP is 130. However now the Guidance II Skill is active, it became 190. I can use it now. I will bet everything on this skill.’ Metehan had calmed down after a few seconds pause and started to move towards The Prince with quick steps. His two swords were glowing with an eerie blue light as well!

“Deadly Double Slash!” Metehan shouted and landed two cross vertical slashes on The Prince.

+Sharp Blade was activated. %64 of the enemy defence was ignored.

+Critical hit. You inflicted %200 damage.

+Your level has risen.

+Battle Phase is over.

+Self Defence Mode is over.

“What the hell?!” The Prince cried with a puzzled face and fell on the ground. His body turned to the grey and a “ting” sound was heard and a golden light bathed Metehan. The Prince was dead! And Metehan had leveled up!

‘Woah! I didn’t expect to kill him with a single hit! This skill is way too strong. Too bad I can’t use it because my maximum MP isn’t enough. Damn it! I was careless. I didn’t pay attention to its Mana Consumption and added 10 Sword Mastery Points to it. Anyway, he dropped his sword. I need to take it first.’ Metehan approached the dead body of The Prince and picked the sword. However he was amazed and disappointed at the same time when he checked it.

[Gladiator’s Giant Sword] (Excellent)

Type : Two-Handed Sword

Attack : 90-95

Attack Speed : 5

Durability : [250/250]

Weight : 8

Requirements

Level : 12

Strength : 60

Agility : 35

Class : Warrior

+5% of Damage Dealt is Converted to HP.

+5% of Damage Dealt is Converted to MP.

It is an high quality Excellent item forged from high quality ores. It is said that only the mighty Warriors could have the honour to posses this sword.

It would be an amazing sword if only Metehan was using Two-Handed Swords. However he had chosen Dual Sword Mastery and he had gotten quite used to it. Of course he could distribute points to Two-Handed Sword Mastery and use it since he still had many unallocated Sword Mastery Points. However he didn’t know the skill system completely, it might have caused some huge disadvantages for him in the future. So basically it was useless for him.

‘Anyway, I can sell it for a good price.’ Metehan put the sword in his bag. There was a dead silence while he was doing this. He was quite relieved since he had killed The Prince and had forgotten about other people there. He wasn’t aware of them until a voice has broken the silence.

“W-Who the hell are you?! W-What did you just do?!” A trembling voice asked. Metehan had snapped out of his thoughts and turned to the owner of the voice. She was the Mage with The Prince. She had a terrified face. She was shaking in her shoes.

‘Damn. I complete forgot about them. I was relieved when I killed The Prince. However he had friends. What if they attack me? I could somehow kill The Prince but I can’t kill them if they attack me at the same time. And although I have combat experience against a Ranger from training camp, I have no combat experience against a Mage. On the top of that Deadly Double Slash Skill has a 5 minutes Cool Down Time. I can’t use it against them even if my mana increases with my Guidance II Skill. Damn it! Damn it!’ Metehan was freak out again. However something caught his attention.

‘Hmm, what? She is shaking. Is she afraid of me? Of course she is! I just killed his friend with a single hit. He seemed to be a quite strong player. So it must have struck fear into her. He doesn’t know about my situation after all. I need to calm down. There is nothing to be freaked out. I can use her fear against them.’ Metehan had calm down and answered with a calm expression.

“Like I said before, I am just someone who hates the bullies.”

However the Ranger suddenly drew his bow and aimed at Metehan. Metehan was startled and he had taken battle stance.

“Stop it! He survived the most powerful attack of The Prince and killed him with a single hit. Don’t act reckless!” The Mage tried to stop him. However the Ranger didn’t listen to her and shoot at Metehan. Metehan could dodge his first arrow however he had shot another one right after it and it had pierced through his left shoulder.

+Battle Phase is active.

+Self Defence Mode is active.

Metehan cried in a pain. The extreme realism of Realistic Mode was doing its job. The pain he felt was no different from a real arrow piercing through his left shoulder. Fortunately its attack power wasn’t as high as The Prince’s and it had only inflicted 40 damage. The name of the Ranger had turned to grey. It was Keskin. Thanks to Guidance II Skill, his HP was fully recovered and it had become 430 now. And when you add his defence boost, he could endure 11 of his arrows.

There were less than 30 meters between them so Metehan started to run towards Keskin. However he couldn’t get close to him because of the arrows he rained at him. He was shooting 10 arrows in 5 seconds. His shooting speed was extraordinary. He could barely dodge the arrows from 30 meters away. He wouldn’t be able to dodge them at all if he were to get closer. And if Metehan were to rush towards him ignoring the arrows, he would become a dead meat for sure.

Metehan could dodge 9 of 10 arrow attacks. However he was still steadily losing HP. He was losing 9% HP every 5 seconds from arrows and he was recovering %5 HP every 10 seconds thanks to Guidance II Skill however it was still not enough. He was loosing 13% HP every 10 seconds totally. At this rate he would die in about 80 seconds.

After about 50 seconds struggle, Metehan couldn’t get close to Keskin and his HP was now at 35% which snapped the Mage out of her fear. Her dominating fear was dissolved when she saw that Metehan couldn’t get close to them because of the Keskin’s relentless arrow attacks. Then she started to cast a spell.

‘Damn it! It was troublesome enough to deal with Ranger and now Mage also started to participate the battle. Am I gonna die and lose my avatar? Lose all of my efforts, skills, intimacy? No way! I can’t die here. If only I could reduce the distance to 15 meters, I could use my Terror Skill to paralyze them. I need to find a way to get closer! But how?’ Metehan had fallen into desperation. He was unable to get close to them and if Mage were also to participate the battle, there would be no way he could survive this. While Mage continued to cast the spell, something unexpected had happened.

“Roarrrrr!” Keskin and Mage heard a deafening voice from their behind. Two Savage Bears was standing behind them with angry eyes. Yes, they were hunting on the Savage Bears spot and they were standing in the middle of the spot now. They had completely forgotten about that since an absurd event had occurred in front of them. The Prince was killed with a single hit. They had started to stare at Metehan and tried to make sense of it and then they had started to attack Metehan which resulted with them forgetting about Savage Bears. Savage Bears were respawned and since they were aggressive monsters, they were about to attack them from behind!

“Oh my God! Savage Bears!” They both shouted at the same time! Keskin and Mage immediately tried to get away from there however it was too late. Savage Bears had already landed an attack on them. They were light armour type classes. So their defences was quite low. Keskin had already lost 40% of his HP with a single attack.

Meanwhile Metehan had taken this chance to get close to them. In a few seconds, while they were focused on Savage Bears, Metehan had already come close enough to land a deadly strike on Keskin with his Slash Rain Skill. Keskin was dead with a single hit and as soon as he was dead, Metehan had retreated back to a safe distance in a few seconds. Since Keskin was dead and Metehan immediately retreated, the other Savage Bear had also focused on the Mage which resulted with an instant death for her. By the way, Metehan had gained another level when he slayed the Ranger and now he was level 7. He could deal with them with the help of Savage Bears.

Savage Bears were aggressive monsters however they wouldn’t leave their spots and attack unless there is an enemy closer than 30 meters to them. So they hadn’t attacked Metehan and others. It was a close battle and he could survive it somehow.

Now all of the threats was eliminated. And his knees had given up on him now and he had fallen on the ground out of relief. That day top spot of the rankings had changed.

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Author Note: I hope you enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, you can support me by rating, following or commenting. I am open the criticisms. I know I am lacking on many fields however I want to improve myself. So feel free to comment. Have fun.

Royal Blood Online